Little Falls transcript., 1887-04-29
MinnesOta's Log Supply.

The Minneapolis Lumberman, that
has always insisted that pine logs would
soon be scarce article in the North
west, last week contained the following
editorial on the situation: T. .-=-a..
''The SITUATION, so far as lumber and
pine land men are concerned in The
Northwest, amounts. 10 this, that
the bulk of the pine timber of Michigan,
Wisconsin and Minnesota has been cut
off: Experts now differ as to the time
it will take to destroy the balance of the
timber. Older states like Maine are
still maintaining a fair standing long
years after the supposed experts and old
lumbermen had pronounced the supply
exha usted. Streams that. were supposed
10 be stripped of the last ves,ige' Of
lumber years ago are now turning out as
much as ever. Thus the Tittabawassee
is making all American nature tired.
Their old mills burn down and they
build new ones. The Flint, Shiawassee
and other tributaries have been absolute
ly wiped out, still the old saginaw district
will bob up serenely with from 500, ,000,-
600 to l,OO0, ,000, 900 feet even if they have
to 60 over to Canada--their hated fees
10 get the logs. In the Northwest,
although the process of ccntralizing the
pine lands in the hands Of the fl W has
gone on for number Of years, annual
predictions are made of very near time
in the future when all the pine IN this
country will be helo by half dozen
men. A disreputable little sheet down
in Chicago said eight years ago that the
pine Of Michigan would be exhausted in
eight years, and yet that state turns out
more pine than ever, and the man who
Can furnish yoke Of cattle or pair of
horses can find a man in an hour who
will sell him cheap stnmpagc on credit
and ano,her who will supply him with
all the needful things to carry on first
class logging operation; and thousands
Of them take advantage ofthe opportuni-
ty. Pine land owners talk flippant'y
Of TIE increased value of timber, and
huge blocks Of standing pine are said to
be sold at fabulous prices, and still the
market seem to be crowded with sellers
rather than buyers.
A regular scramble has been going on
for years as to who should furnish the
largest amount of lumber for the least
price and all at the same time bowling
about the low price of lumber. The very
men who have screamed the loudest
about the necessity for the cur,ailment
of production during the last ten years
are the men who today are manufacturing
from 25,000,00O to 100,000,000 feet and
from two to five times as much as they
did ten years ago. They are building
new mills and repairing old ones; buying
new bodies of pine and going dsep ia
debt to pay for the cutting and saving.
All this bellies the claim which we
have made for years that the manufactur-
ed lumber was not bringing fair price
in the market, and ought to he advanced ;
but we still insist that the whole con:
di,ion and situation of the lumber
business not only justified an increase
in timber valves, but more so in the
manufactured products. 1t is not in
the limits of possibility that Michigan,
Wisconsin and Minnesota can stand a
drain Of s, 100000, 900 feet of pine lumber
for the next twenty years, many of the
principal sources of supply are known
to be near their demise.
1t is apparent that unless there is to be
invented or discovered some cheap sub
stitute fol lumber that the value of thi,
indispensable commodity must be
greatly enhanced. If the year 1900 Goes
find common pine lumber selling at $50
per NJ it will he miracle. A few
:. heavy pine land owners may realize on
former investments which will make
comfortable, and few hundred
impecunious loggers who have nothing
else TO do on earth except to cut logs
may rope in greenhorn pine land owners
for some years to come; but, "]et it be
recorded" that pine timber, logs and
lumber ought now to be advanced in
price at least 100 per cent.
ST. CLOUD, April 25.-News reached
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